Great British Sewing Bee Colour Blocked Dress

I may be a week later than the vintage episode of the show, but here is my colour-blocked dress from the Great British Sewing Bee book From Stitch to Style.

Our College show this year was Made in Dagenham (and a great show it was).  I had wanted to have a go at this pattern and it seemed like it would be a nice homage to make it to wear to watch the show which is set in the late 60s.  So I cut it out last weekend and wore it on Thursday night.

I really enjoyed making it and wearing it!  Someone spotted it and was impressed that I "run it up so quickly". 

I love these colours together and it looks just like I wanted.  I cut a size 14 bust, grading to a 12 in the waist and hips.  It may be because the fabric is slightly stretchy but it turned out quite large and I had to take 5/8" extra in at the side seams, a size 12 would have been a better fit.  I also narrowed the shoulders by 5/8" and raised the waist line by just under 1" (my usual adjustments).  The shape is a little boxy. Also I think there is a problem with the pattern, my bottom black band was about 4" too short (pattern piece 8), fortunately I had enough to cut it again.

 

 

The back is absolutely plain and maybe it would be nicer colour blocked as well.   Generally I love the fabric.  It's a stretchy cotton from Minerva Crafts at £7.99 a metre and available in 20 colours!  I used all the same fabrics, however, the white does seem to be a little lighter (that might just be the colour) and you can see above is a little transparent.

 

I didn't like the way the pattern fitted the facing so that the side seam joined seamed the facing and dress which I thought wouldn't give a nicely finished underarm.  I used the method in this SewOverIt Vlog.  Overall this was reasonably successful, I got a lovely finish around the arms, however on one side of the neck I got a funny pull (see below).  I think this was due to overstitching too near.  I would give it another try though.

 

 

Definitely one of my better zip insertions!  Now for the rooky mistake.  I caught the white fabric in the overlocker as you can see below.  I didn't have enough white fabric to recut, so I had to unpick all the seams and cut a wider black panel and reduce the white panel so that the cut is in the seam allowance.  You can never get complacent.  Overall though I love it.

This weekend we had a great time in London.  Even though I lived there for 8 years, we really enjoyed having a tourist weekend.  We rode on the BigBus and had a river cruise.

 

We went to a fabulous production of Madame Butterfly at the Coliseum, only my second live opera (and I fell asleep in the first one).  We loved it. 

 

 

.. and on Sunday we went to Hampton Court.  Gemma and myself are fascinated by the Tudors.  My maiden name is Parr and we have a family tree traced back to Catherine Parr's brother, so I particularly love anything from the Henry VIII period.  We thought Hampton Court really had the feeling of history, loved it!  It was particularly gratifying at a difficult time in the UK to experience our wonderful history, culture and capital city, which I hope will remain part of the EU.